Research Greet De Block

Abstract

The research is positioned at the nexus of urban history and urban studies, with a focus on infrastructure. Infrastructure is approached as driving force of socio-spatial development, with projects structured along two main research lines: (1) technological design: planning intentions, material politics, and agendas of de/reterritorialization inscribed into the design of infrastructure and associated mobility policies; (2) effects of technology: mobility flows, socio-economic processes, and landscape transformation. The research is highly interdisciplinary, linking urban history with Science and Technology Society studies, urban design, political geography, and landscape studies. Moreover, research on 19th and 20th -century infrastructure-urbanization mechanisms is mobilised to provide insight in current urban condition and related urban theories and practices.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Block Greet
• Fellow: De Block Greet

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/01/2020 - 31/12/2024

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Transit-oriented development (TOD) has come to great prominence within contemporary planning policies in Europe and North-America. As a model, it calls for an integration of transport and urban planning, forwarding public transport as the backbone for urban development in order to curtail sprawl while still facilitating today's mobile society. Yet, TOD research and practice are based on a normative approach dividing urban from rural qualities and preferring static radial-concentric models to dynamic network-urbanisation relations. Consequently, current TOD analysis and planning are limited to a radius around the station to be filled in with compact urban typologies and homogeneous densities. This normative frame leads to problematic, a-contextual analyses of, and interventions in, relations between rural-urban places and mobility. Beyond the dots in TODs will contribute to a sustainable planning approach in networked rural-urban places by developing an analytical frame focusing on dynamic relations instead of static modeling as well as producing knowledge on rural-urban places apt to work with hybridity instead of omitting it. More specifically, the research will analyse interactions between rail network development, commuting, and processes of rural-urban urbanisation in a long term perspective. The research project will develop a historical analysis of site-specific socio-spatial development in one of the most sprawled territories in Europe – Flanders – in order to further knowledge on heterogeneous and dynamic network-urbanisation relations, unravelling a reality that is far more complex than homogeneous density dots and circular growth models. By reconstructing relations between rail, commuting, and urbanisation, combining quantitative and qualitative methods from transport geography, urban planning and urban history, the project opens up ways for dynamic and place-specific planning strategies beyond current dots in TODs.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Block Greet
• Co-promoter: Verhetsel Ann
• Fellow: Schepers Ingrid

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/10/2018 - 30/09/2022

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

The main goal of the project is to evaluate the historical collaboration that has taken place between states on projects associated with European Integration since the 19th century. This project stresses the need for a European scope and the benefits of adopting international views in research and education.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Block Greet

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/09/2017 - 31/08/2019

Funding

• EU-NT. KAD

Project type(s)

• Education Project
• Research Project

Abstract

Today, landscape design plays an increasingly important role in ecological development and infrastructure planning, leading to a disciplinary realignment between landscape designers, ecologists and engineers. Current research and design proposals on 'metropolitan landscapes' in Belgium tie in with international trends in design, based on two main concepts: (1) a balance between 'the urban' and 'the natural' and (2) the potential of landscape design to act as an integrative instrument for several disciplines and experts. However, these concepts are not new. This PhD project aims at mobilizing a historical understanding of the role of landscape design in relation to: (1) a complex field of knowledge production, policy making and planning and (2) shifting conceptions of city and nature in Belgium since the early 20th century. In doing so, the research adds academic and indeed historical profundity to current design discourse as well as contributes to recent developments in urban history. The research follows an inductive method: an original contribution to existing historiography and theory in the field is built up through case study analysis. The PhD is based on three case studies which allow to explore shifting alliances between designers, scientists, engineers and policy makers in Belgium between 1900 and today, with Brussels as geographical focus: (1) ca. 1900-1929: biologist Jean Massart and landscape designer/urban planner Louis Van der Swaelmen, who developed an 'ethologic' view on landscape design and a 'sociobiologist' theory on urban planning; (2) 1951-1989: landscape designer René Pechère and the Service of the Green Plan, reconciling landscape design and engineering within the conception of the Belgian territory as a garden; (3) 1974-2016: biologist Paul Duvigneaud and the Brussels Agglomeration, developing the scientific field of urban ecology and bringing it into practice in designs of parks, corridors and networks for the Brussels Region. Following a literature review, these case studies are subject to a network, discourse as well as design analysis, with the following questions in mind: In which (inter)national networks did landscape designers operate? Which discourses on the urban and the natural were developed? In what sense were terms as 'sociobiology', 'biotechnics' and 'metabolism' used and how did their meaning evolve? How did the alliance with ecology and infrastructure affect the design and vice versa? The case study research is based on published sources as well as archival research, in the two most recent cases complemented by interviews. The PhD research develops a new methodological approach charting transformation of landscape design through its shifting relations with other disciplines. Moreover, it offers new perspectives on on-going academic discussions, in both urban history and urban design, and uncovers a new body of archival and other sources. The project is especially innovative because: (1) it approaches ecology and engineering from a landscape design perspective, which will introduce a new way of studying disciplines and fields of knowledge that have until now very often been studied separately; (2) it introduces ideological, sociocultural and aesthetical perspectives in a hitherto technical discussion; (3) it will set a crucial step in the development of landscape design history in Belgium as an academic discipline.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Notteboom Bruno
• Promoter: Schrijver Lara
• Co-promoter: De Block Greet
• Fellow: Danneels Koenraad

Research team(s)

• Architecture + Interior01/10/2016 - 30/09/2020

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Internationally, landscape and nature/ecology are foregrounded as a new ground to recalibrate the discipline of spatial planning. However, in Flanders there is a problematic tension between landscape and nature policy, translated in planning strategies based on either static zoning or on a dynamic systemic development; a divide standing in the way of this new integrated conception of spatial planning. As first step in bridging the divide, the STIMPRO-project aims at contextualizing the tension by placing it in a historical perspective. The current, a-historical reading of nature and landscape policy gives way to a one-dimensional focus on the technical and scientific approach in planning theory and practice, which obscures an in-depth understanding of the challenges at stake, both environmental and social. The project examines a key period of formalization and conception of planning instruments (1970-2000), in which a legal and institutional framework for both landscape and nature policy were developed. It focuses on two paradigmatic cases, in which crucial issues and questions on landscape and nature conception crystallize: 1) the Landscape Atlas (Landschapsatlas, LA), based on an assessment of traditional landscapes and a rationale of zoning; 2) the Green Main Structure (Groene Hoofdstructuur, GHS), based on a network and development strategy. Starting from this case studies the project aims at: 1) gaining insight in the concepts of conservation and development in nature and landscape policy in Flanders and uncovering the networks of actors and ideas involved and 2) tracing the ideological arguments, sociocultural motives, conflicts and power relations underlying the scientific/technocratic rationale. Methodologically, the assembly of networks and narratives is grounded in Bruno Latour's Actor-Network Theory and Maarten Hajer's and John Dryzek's work on environmental discourses. The research is based on three types of primary sources: 1) individual interviews with a preselected group of 14 actors that played a primary role in the development of the LA and GHS in government administrations, research institutions, and preservation committees; 2) archives of the actors, institutions and associations under study; 3) the reports of the Scientific Conferences for Greening (1975-84). The feasibility of the research is ensured by the pre-selection of the actors and literature by the promoters and the targeted way of addressing the archives. The project contributes to the research activities of the Henry van de Velde research group (HVDV), and more specifically to the cluster Heritage and Resilience, by initiating a long-term research line on landscape history, design and policy, which inscribes heritage studies in a present-day development perspective. The STIMPRO-project is a first step of a PhD project that will be set up by the promoters (FWO, IWT) as well as prepares the foundation for possible research funded by governmental administrations. The cooperation between promoter Bruno Notteboom and co-promoter Greet De Block of the Centre for Urban History is essential for the interdisciplinary approach of this research and makes it possible to contribute to two frontline research domains of the University of Antwerp: Ecology and Sustainable Development, and Urban History and Contemporary Urban Policy.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Notteboom Bruno
• Co-promoter: De Block Greet

Research team(s)

• Architecture + Interior01/07/2016 - 31/12/2017

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

In a time of rapid urbanization solid long-term perspectives on the many environmental, social, economic or political challenges of urbanity are urgently needed. Uniting urban history, sociology, environmental studies and digital humanities, GIStorical Antwerp II turns the historical city into a digital lab which provides an answer to this need. For 8 snapshots between 1584 and 1984 it offers dynamic social maps including every household in the entire city of Antwerp. Construction combines innovative ways of crowd-sourcing and time-efficient spatial and text-mining methodologies (Linear Referencing, Named Entity Recognition). The result is a GIS-environment which not only allows a micro-level view of 500 years of urban development, but more importantly allows an immediate spatial and social contextualization of a sheer unlimited number of other datasets, both those realized through 30 years of research on Antwerp and the mass of structured and unstructured digital 'big data'. For both the applicants and the international research community a completely new type of longitudinal research on urban inequalities – from income over housing quality to pollution – becomes feasible.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: Soens Tim
• Co-promoter: Blondé Bruno
• Co-promoter: De Block Greet
• Co-promoter: Greefs Hilde
• Co-promoter: Kestemont Mike
• Co-promoter: Loots Ilse
• Co-promoter: Oosterlynck Stijn
• Co-promoter: Stabel Peter
• Co-promoter: Van Damme Ilja

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/05/2016 - 30/04/2020

Funding

• FWO
• PATRIM.

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Recent literature in ecological urbanism shows that design strategies are increasingly combining infrastructural design with ecological interventions to address an imminent ecological crisis within the context of accelerating urbanization. Merging technological function with natural structures, the design of these ecological infrastructures centers on sophisticated data collecting, rather than responding to socio-political demands or taking inspiration from historical precedents. Political ecology, on the other hand, mainly focuses on the socio-political effects of technonatural intervention, or in-/exclusion of social actors in the planning process, while paying limited attention to the design of ecological infrastructure and the inscribed spatial motives. By delving into 'historical precedents', in which ecological infrastructures were conceived as mode of urban design, the research will add a design perspective to political ecology as well as socio-political context to urban design discourse. Recent design culture will be analyzed vis-à-vis historical concepts that dealt with technology and environmental control within a context of uncertainty and rapid change. Besides the innovative methodology linking past, present and future projection in a way that contributes to both history and current urban theory, as well as to design practice, the project has a decidedly interdisciplinary focus. In addition to tying together the disciplines of ecological urbanism and political ecology in a timely bind breaking new ground, on a broader level, the project relates technology, space and society, and with that the domains of urban history, urbanism, planning, engineering, political geography and Science Technology and Society studies (STS) as it traces sociospatial motives inscribed in technonatural projects.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Block Greet
• Co-promoter: Soens Tim
• Fellow: Elkin Rosetta

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/10/2015 - 30/09/2019

Funding

• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

This project represents a research contract awarded by the University of Antwerp. The supervisor provides the Antwerp University research mentioned in the title of the project under the conditions stipulated by the university.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Block Greet
• Fellow: De Block Greet

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/01/2015 - 31/12/2019

Funding

• BOF
• BOF

Project type(s)

• Research Project

Abstract

Recent literature in urban studies tends to identify and define the city as an ever more complex and hybrid reality, referring to the urban as something 'splintered', 'assembled' and 'imagined' while seeking refuge in new concepts and catchphrases like 'post'-city, 'non'-city, or 'ex'-urban. Our collective research initiative will transcend this not by churning out even more new theories and concepts, but by analysing the very activity of defining the city as a historical process and practice. To that end, we will concentrate on four concrete, complementary domains, in which the definition of cities is at stake by nature. By focusing on (1) 'suburbanisation', (2) 'territoriality', and (3) 'urban citizenship' we examine the existence and meaningfulness of physical, social and imagined boundaries in defining the urban and urbanity. The theme of 'knowledge' (4) adds a reflexive layer by analysing the long term interconnections between the urban reality and knowledge formation – including knowledge on the city itself.

Researcher(s)

• Promoter: De Munck Bert
• Co-promoter: De Block Greet
• Co-promoter: Greefs Hilde
• Co-promoter: Oosterlynck Stijn
• Co-promoter: Van Damme Ilja

Research team(s)

• Centre for Urban History01/01/2011 - 31/12/2020

Funding

• FWO

Project type(s)

• Research Project